The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation's (WW's) 2016 Foundation Report includes audited financials for 2016, donor lists, and updates on the organization's work during the year--as described in "WW Perspective: Preparing Teachers to Succeed in Today's and Tomorrow's Schools" (Arthur Levine) and "Letter of…

Mike Rowe wants high school students to rethink that $140,000 art history degree. The creator, executive producer, and host of CNN's Somebody's Gotta Do It and former host of TV's Dirty Jobs has long been passionate about promoting vocational, aka middle-skills, professions. Over the past decade, Rowe has given countless public and private…

This report presents findings from the 2016 Ross-CASE Survey of Philanthropic Giving to Universities in UK. The project was conducted by CASE Europe and funded by HEFCE and the Ross-Group. This year's survey comes at a time of great change for the UK charity sector. The historical trend data of previous surveys will be invaluable in helping…

Ten years ago, MDC's report, "The State of the South 2007: Philanthropy as the South's 'Passing Gear,'" (ED519455) examined how philanthropy can accelerate progress toward a South that is both equitable for all its residents and competitive with other regions of the country. A decade later, our second iteration, commissioned by the…

When every child has the opportunity to meet his or her full potential, families, communities, and the nation's economic future strengthens. Remarkably, one in four American children come from low-income families and enter kindergarten not ready to learn and, as a result, fall behind from the very start. The nation pays a heavy price through…

Nonprofit leaders have long been told to behave "more like a business" and the corporatization of higher education, where the author now labors, has gotten critical attention. But these issues are still not widely discussed in philanthropy, where the author once toiled, except by a few intrepid souls who study and critique the field. In the 1960s,…

This chapter examines the charter school policy and planning network and how this network is helping to grow urban charter schools and related advocacy organizations across the United States.

This current study presents a unique approach to the examination of Hispanic film through the incorporation of a civic engagement project, the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project (MSPP), into the curriculum. Students examined and assessed important global issues, and how they are portrayed in films from several Spanish-speaking countries, while…

The Walton Family Foundation was at a pivotal point in early 2015. After investing $1.3 billion in K-12 education over the previous two decades, executive and board leadership were reflecting on past work, and charting a course for the Foundation's strategic direction based on key learnings from their investments in education. The Walton Family…

The narrative around skateboarding is changing. Educational and cultural institutions are beginning to engage with skateboarding in new ways. At the same time, skaters still thrive -- and sometimes prefer to function -- on the margins of mainstream society. Despite growing visibility and popularity, negative misconceptions regarding skateboarding…

Published annually since 1985, the Handbook series provides a compendium of thorough and integrative literature reviews on a diverse array of topics of interest to the higher education scholarly and policy communities. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of research findings on a selected topic, critiques the research literature in terms…

This article begins by observing that foundations come in all shapes and sizes. The mission and grant-making philosophy of any foundation are determined by an unscientific mixture of its history, changing external realities, and leaders. The article then continues by describing The Teagle Foundation, a small, philanthropic organization with about…

As the nation's largest private foundation focused solely on increasing Americans' success in higher education, Lumina Foundation seeks to maximize its effectiveness in serving the public trust through a "leadership model" of philanthropy, in favor of following a strictly charitable role. Merisotis shares his thoughts on how that…

How can the spirits of critically ill children be raised? Alexis Weisel (co-president of the Monarch High School National Art Honor Society, 2010-2011) had this question in mind when she initiated and developed the Wings for Angels Project after hearing about the Believe in Tomorrow (BIT) organization through her art teacher, Ellen McMillan. The…

Public education is becoming increasingly privatized as private philanthropic organizations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and corporations, such as Pearson, dominate the policy-making process, and more students enroll in publicly funded but privately administered charter schools. The privatization of education results from the…